


A Key to the Heavens (A Sword to the Neck)

by EternalEclipse



Category: Bleach, Sword Art Online
Genre: Aizen Sosuke Being a Bastard, Alternate Universe - Sword Art Online Fusion, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Minor Character Death, Slow Burn, Swordfighting, UraIchi Week 2018
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-05-17 04:17:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14825096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/pseuds/EternalEclipse
Summary: The next thing that came out of the inventory was a sword. “Huh,” Ichigo said. “Might be useful.”----In which Aizen prioritizes creating an Ouken before the Gotei 13 can come together with a defense force for the Jureichi, and the whole of Karakura Town and Naruki City are caught in his plans--and his bankai. Given the opportunity to fight their way back into the real world, the humans take up arms, ready to fight whoever and whatever necessary to regain their freedom. Of course, it's never quite that simple....





	1. Sound The Alarm

In hindsight, it seemed like the sort of thing that should have made itself obvious right away. There should have been some great burst of light, a sudden awareness, or even just an uneasy feeling. They shouldn’t have had to have been told that their world had disappeared.

It was a shinigami who had raised the alarm initially. Though alarm may have been a strong word--Kuchiki Rukia was merely unsure of whether her denreishiki was working, as Karakura Town had never before gone a full 12 hours without a hollow appearing during her tenure there. She reached Sugawara Kozue, the leader of the team of Division 10 shinigami that worked in the nearby Naruki City, but they were unable to contact anyone else in the Transient World or Soul Society.

While the local shinigami were panicking, a group of human teenagers wandered past the town limits. They were photography hobbyists who just wanted to take a few good pictures in the forest. They hadn’t gone too far when they were suddenly attacked by a wild boar. Terrified, they ran back to the town. Most of them made it past the limits but Yoshida Jun tripped and fell a few yards short, and was gored by the boar. His sister and their friends watched, horrified, as Jun glowed for a split second and then shattered, somehow, into insubstantial crystal. The boar stumbled away uncaringly, despite Yoshida Hatsuko’s screaming.

The Kurosaki family were one of the very few who had noticed anything strange. Karin had casually remarked at breakfast that morning that they didn’t have any ghosts lingering around. Yuzu agreed that it was a good thing that the pervert was gone and left it at that.

Ichigo hadn’t paid too much attention to the lack of ghosts around Karin. They tended to come and go fairly frequently. He did start to become worried when none of the ghosts he usually talked to on his walk to school were around. That didn’t happen very often at all--usually there’d be at least one. He scowled harder as he made his way to class, worrying about the little girl with the roadside memorial. He wondered if it were too much to ask for them to have just moved on to the afterlife.

He’d decided to check on a pair of ghosts that hung out near the big park, where they had been crushed in a freak accident four months before. He thought he heard the monsters’ roars around that time, so he was skeptical, but it didn’t really matter. It always took longer for those sorts to move on, since they hadn’t been prepared for their deaths the way that others who expected it often did. He predicted they wouldn’t leave for a few months more.

“Oi, Sanagi-jii-san!” Ichigo called out. “You there?” There was no answer as he picked through the grass, though he got a couple of odd looks from passersby. He got to the middle of the park before looking around. He’d learned to tell ghosts apart from normal people a long while back, and every single one who had anything to do with the park was gone. There weren’t even any monsters around that he could hear.

Unnerved, Ichigo returned home. There wasn’t much else he could do, really. He had no new leads, and his best informants were all missing. The least he could do was help Yuzu make dinner and wait for school the next day—there was the chance that his friends would have noticed something strange, even if they didn’t see ghosts like he did.

While Isshin was bawling in the hallway, his children were discussing the lack of ghosts. Not that there was much to discuss—there simply was a lack in a way that there had never been before. The phone ringing interrupted Karin’s latest idea—that there was some kind of monster in town that had eaten them all.

Tatsuki was on the caller ID, so Ichigo picked up the wireless and brought it up to his room. With the kind of strangeness that was going on, if it couldn’t wait for school the next day then it was probably important.

“Ichigo?” Tatsuki asked. Ichigo upped important to life-or-death—Tatsuki sounded like she’d been crying.

“Tatsuki, what happened?”

“Has anything strange happened to you today? I know you see things…” she trailed off.

Ichigo felt his worry condense into a hard ball at the back of his throat. “We’re not sure,” he replied gently. “What happened, Tatsuki?”

“Just about an hour ago, I think, one of the kids from the dojo, he—he died. Somehow.” Tatsuki choked on a sob as Ichigo felt his insides turn to ice as she recounted the story to him. It didn’t sound like the monsters, not as he knew them, but something like that happening so close to the city was strange. “The strangest part of it, though, was that she said he—his body—shattered into something blue that looked like crystal, and disappeared.”

“What?” Ichigo asked.

“I know, it sounds impossible, but that’s what she said happened. I guess you don’t know about anything that could do that?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Ichigo tried to figure out what could be going on, but it was hopeless—he’d only ever seen one ghost who had been able to hurt the physical world, and that had been the one that killed his mom. But he’d only been able to see it because he could see ghosts anyway—he didn’t think that it was likely that the entirety of their group had the same skill.

“Do you want to come over, or should I come to you? You shouldn’t be alone right now.” Ichigo asked. Tatsuki was his oldest friend, of course he worried for her. He didn’t know Yoshida-san, but that didn’t really matter.

“Give me five minutes,” she agreed shakily.

Five minutes were more than enough for Ichigo to tell Yuzu that Tatsuki was coming and to heat up some of their leftovers. Neither of his siblings had a clue what the shattering could mean either, though Ichigo knew he would probably spend most of the next afternoon trying his best to figure it out. If it was a threat to them, he could do nothing else.

* * *

The Kurosakis did their best to distract and comfort Tatsuki. She had ended up staying the night—though it was on the spare futon in the tv room, and not sharing with Ichigo as they had when they had been younger. They walked to school together in silence. Small talk felt strange after the events of the previous day, and there was nothing more to talk about regarding the fate of Yoshida Jun. Ichigo noted to himself that there were still no ghosts. He wondered if he should check to see if Yoshida had left one behind, though from the sounds of things he doubted it.

The mood at school was lively as ever—Yoshida wasn’t a classmate, so they likely hadn’t heard about it. People seemed to pick up on their melancholy and left them to it, especially after Chad stared down the one kid who’d looked at them strangely.

Suddenly, there were a wave of people pointing out the windows. Hearing varied exclamations of surprise and fear, Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Chad quickly pushed their way to where they could have a good view of what was going on.

There was a figure standing in the middle of the sky. It looked like a person, but only if they were many times the size of a normal human being. It wore a garment with a long, black hood that covered its face, voluminous sleeves that rendered its hands invisible, and went down to cover its feet. Ichigo scowled as the entire area seemed to take on an oppressive atmosphere, driving some of his classmates to their knees as they failed to resist it.

Was it a monster? But then how was it making itself visible to them all? Tatsuki’s hand clenched on his arm as she glared at the figure as well. Whatever it was, they would figure out how to deal with it.

The entire area seemed to take on a reddish tint as the figure began to speak. “Attention, humans. Welcome to my world.” Male, by the voice, though Ichigo couldn’t place the dialect.

In the blink of an eye, the world faded away and burst into blue. Ichigo shielded his eyes against the flash with his free hand. Just as suddenly, They seemed to emerge in a space without dimension, where they hung in the air as if gravity had no claim to them. Tatsuki let go of him once they had stopped, and looked around. There had to be thousands of people there. Nearby were all the other high schoolers; Ichigo caught sight of Chad, who was making his way over to them. But there were others too, people from all around Karakura. And Naruki City, if Ichigo had his guess, catching a glimpse of Keigo’s sister.

After people stopped appearing, the figure continued. Ichigo immediately snapped his attention to it. “My identity is of no consequence. Though from this moment forwards, I am the sole person who can control this world.”

Even as whispered conversations seemed to reach a fever pitch, the figure continued. “As I’m sure some of you are aware, the rules are different than in the world you are used to. This is in part because you are only here in your souls. Do not expect any government to come for you--even though you have been under my power for a day in this world--only a small fraction of a second has passed in the physical world.”

Ichigo felt his heart start to race as he thought it all through. Of course they were only going off of what the strange figure was telling them, but between this strange place and the worrying lack of ghosts, Ichigo was nearly certain that the figure was telling the truth thus far.

“You may wonder if there is any way out of this world. I would be _honored_ to introduce it to you.” The figure gestured grandly with one arm. “But, first, I would like all of you to take out your cell phones.” There was a rustle as people moved to comply. Ichigo scowled down at his--it wasn’t responding to his touch. From the looks of it Tatsuki and Chad were having the same problem. “I will activate them now.”

Ichigo tried again, and managed to get through his phone’s lock screen. His unease grew. He was reading the new set of menu buttons on the home screen, which were laughably few.

After everyone had a moment to look at their phones, the figure continued. “I could make this any world I pleased, but I decided to take some inspiration from you humans--you are now playing a game. A death match. If you die here, your connections with your bodies will falter, and you will die in every way you can imagine, all at once.”

“There is, however, a way to release this illusion,” the figure boomed. “You simply must beat the game. There is no other way out of this--even if someone were to find your bodies, they could not release you.”

“Why are you doing this?” A lone voice called out. There were many murmurs of agreement.

The figure gestured out in a circle. “My purpose in creating this place has already been realized--I have created a space to explore human nature, where I can intervene as I wish. This day has been in the making for quite some time, and I thank you all for joining me on this journey!”

Ichigo had to wonder if the guy ever stopped talking, even as he paid close attention. If any useful information were to be given, he had to know. At the same time, it just seemed like this person was enamored by the sound of their own voice. His fists clenched as his resolve sharpened--he was going to do whatever it took to bring this guy down, hard.

“And now your stories truly begin,” the figure was still speaking. “For now, you have been protected by your city’s limits as God has created His world. In twenty-four hours, or 13:00 tomorrow, 75% of you must be outside of them, or the boundaries will fail.” As fearful shouts began to run through the crowd, the figure continued in a faux-soothing voice. “But I am not cruel. There are other settlements that I have created in this world that have the same protections for now. You may find one of those instead. But if there are more than 25% of you in the city at that time, every person over that amount will die. I suppose, as the matter of whom is of no concern to me, if you would like to leave your life to chance you are still able to try that, however.

“Thus begins the real game. Good luck, humans. Get strong and one day you may secure your survival.”

And then Ichigo blinked, and in that split second he was back in the classroom, sandwiched between Tatsuki and Chad, and wondering if it was some sort of fever dream. He punched a desk, startling several people. His hand hurt, and one of his knuckles was bleeding a little bit--it was real.

And there were signs of the game that the figure had spoken of--there was a flash in the corner of his eye that, upon closer examination, was an HP bar. He’d lost three hp points because of his action. That wasn’t too much of an issue--it seemed he started with 250--but he presumed that if he lost all of them he would die. Given the additional unpleasantness that apparently awaited those whose fate it was, he would be much happier not to.

“We’re going to kill him,” Tatsuki said loudly enough for Ichigo to hear, even through the hubbub. “He’s going to die for this.”

Ichigo agreed. He wasn’t sure how they were going to manage it yet, but the person who had done this to them all—Yoshida, and however many more of them would die before this was done, as would obviously happen when so many untrained people were pitted against monsters of alll kinds—deserved a special place in hell, and Ichigo was going to help put him there.

Chad was at their back. Ichigo turned and made eye contact with him. Chad nodded. Ichigo felt better about their chances with Chad there as well.

“Waaah, but I don’t want to go! I’ll just die!” Chizuru yelled, cutting over the hubbub. “Hime-sama, promise me you won’t go either! It’d be a waste of these~” Chizuru gestured at Orihime’s chest, causing Orihime to blush slightly and Tatsuki to plant a fist in Chizuru’s head.

Chizuru predictably made a big deal out of it, providing some much-needed comedy to anyone in range, before proving that even she wasn’t immune to the threat to their lives. “I don’t want to leave Karakura,” she said in a small voice. “I’m no good at anything that would be useful outside.”

“Ah, I’m sorry Chizuru-san, but I’ll be going I think.” Orihime smiled gently. “I know how to fight, after all. Besides, it’ll be an adventure! I wonder if the other cities have new foods! I’m going to miss making pickle bread with peanut butter and chocolate miso jelly.” Turning, she continued. “Hey, Tatsuki, when will you be going?”

Tatsuki made a show of thinking about it as Chizuru went back to squawking in the background. “Eh, we’ll have to say goodbye to everyone first, and pack, so early tomorrow I’d think. Maybe 7? We want as much light as possible, makes traveling easier--Ichigo?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ichigo grunted. Chad echoed the sentiment.

* * *

Although no one officially closed the school, kids and teachers alike didn’t stick around. Ichigo wondered as he walked about how they were going to deal with things like laws, and keeping order, and even things like hospitals. While cities tended to have a lot of people, they also tended to import large amounts of food to feed those people, so even without The Figure’s ultimatum, they would probably have to have sent people out to find new sources relatively quickly. He wondered how that would go—there were a lot of skilled people in cities, but not a lot of them were farmers.

Instead of going home, Ichigo headed for the cemetery. If he was leaving, then he would have to say goodbye to his mom one last time. He cleaned up her grave as best he could without any supplies before sitting in front of it.

He started by telling her what had happened, and that he was leaving. He wondered aloud to her if there really was an end. They only had the word of The Figure to rely on, and they were the person who had trapped them there in the first place. He wondered what the catch was.

The last didn’t matter as much at the moment as it might have if they had had the time to explore it—they had to make sure first to keep as many people alive as they could, which meant that most of them had to leave the sanctuaries of Karakura and Naruki City and hope that the promised settlements beyond actually existed. He talked until he went hoarse about his fears that they wouldn’t succeed in clearing out enough, about how likely it would be that they would end up on their own because it wasn’t really feasible for the local government to do all that much in such an unexpected situation after a span of only one day.

When he ran out of words, he just sat there for a while. Not too long, because he didn’t want to worry his siblings and he did need to pack, but long enough to try to imagine what she would say to all of this.

He said a final goodbye and left. He didn’t look back.

When Ichigo got back home, the clinic was buzzing with people in uniforms. He hadn’t been able to get into his own home until Yuzu pushed through the masses and dragged him through.

“Has it really gotten that bad already?” Ichigo asked.

“Someone tried to steal meds from the clinic a couple hours ago.” Karin replied. They had been sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in, staring down at a piece of paper. “They didn’t manage to break anything because of Goat-Face, but the hospital is taking charge of most of it.”

Ichigo grimaced. “I’m leaving in the morning.”

“We know,” Karin replied seriously. “Stay safe.”

“What about you guys?”

“Someone has to take care of Goat-Face,” Karin grumbled. “We’ll probably end up in whatever new city they find. At least for now. We’re not stupid—we know we need more fighting experience to be safe out there. But we can leave here, so we probably should. It’s not like everyone can leave. It’s not worth the risk.”

Ichigo supposed that that was the best he would get out of them. He would just have to make sure that the threat was dealt with before his siblings decided that they were needed fighting. They were only children—if they went out against things like the one that had killed Yoshida Jun, who had several years of karate experience, they would die.

They ate reheated leftovers to the noises of the security crew clearing out the clinic.

Ichigo closed himself away into his room after he finished eating. He could still hear faint noises from the clinic and the street, but it was the best he was going to get for a while. He needed a minute to process everything. He was the kind of person who kept moving forward, as he had promised himself he would become so many years ago, so he knew what his path looked like going forward.

But even for a person who grew up seeing spirits as solidly as people, some things were downright strange. He would make his way through whatever challenges lay ahead in record time for sure, but he was working on new ground. He had a feeling that this would be different than dealing with Yakuza beatdowns and school bullies.

He took his phone back out, intending to spend some time flipping through it while he knew he had service. Except....the home screen was strange. Instead of his usual page of apps, there was a dark male silhouette surrounded by circles on a white background, with an empty field at the top. Since none of the other buttons seemed to be working, he clicked the field, and it asked for a player name.

“A name, huh…” Ichigo muttered aloud. A name for him while he was stuck in the game. For a moment he considered just using ‘Ichigo’--it was unlikely that anyone else would spell it with the same kanji as he used--but thought better of it. If he made any enemies, he might not want to be quite so identifiable for his family’s sake. Before he could think better of it, he entered ‘Shugosha’. He was still fighting to protect, after all.

When he navigated back to the main page, he found that he was able to access the other buttons. He found the inventory...and pressed a button that somehow led him to be immediately clothed in some kind of leather breastplate armor. He poked at it, and then parked himself in front of a mirror.

The next thing that came out of the inventory was a sword. “Huh,” Ichigo said. “Might be useful.”

After exhausting the possibilities of the ’equipment’ and ‘items’ sections of the main page, Ichigo tried to navigate back to his regular phone. Unfortunately, the best it seemed to be able to do was a list of his contacts in a ‘friends’ tab.  It took a bit of doing, but eventually Ichigo figured out how to text Chad and Tatsuki to make sure that they explored everything, and about how to add things to the inventory, as that had taken him a while to find. He figured he would get Orihime’s phone number at some point when they met up the next day.

Satisfied by their responses, Ichigo made short work of packing, and went to sleep, ready to face the future.

* * *

Elsewhere, Kisuke Urahara was worrying at the modifications he was making to his old reiatsu blocking outfit. He hadn’t slept since Aizen put Karakura Town and Naruki City into this illusion; while Aizen probably knew where he was, he was going to have to blend in if he had a chance of stopping things from progressing too far on the inside.

Kisuke wondered why Aizen chose to make his move right then, and what he had used to create such a solid illusion. If all of the humans were indeed souls, then it had to be something extremely powerful and fast-acting, as Kisuke would have known if they had been put to sleep first, and they weren’t.

His first clue was that Aizen wanted the humans to develop their reiatsu, by putting their soul forms in proximity with deadly situations to let them grow their potentials as quickly as possible. It was a crude, but effective way to do so, even if Kisuke was still trying to work out why he needed that to be the case. Either way, he was sure that most of the humans wouldn’t have caught the lies Aizen had spun for them. It might not even matter in the end--the humans were constrained by their quest for survival as Aizen outlined it, and even if it would have been best for the three world, they wouldn’t just die because it would make Aizen’s life more difficult.

The lab was brightly lit, though that didn’t keep his eyes from drooping--he wasn’t practiced at managing all-nighters anymore. But right then he had no more time to waste, so he kept working on it.

Some hours later, he left the lab long enough to grab a fresh cup of tea and a piece of toast to prevent Tessai from giving him looks, and spared a moment to look at the sunrise. It wasn’t coming from quite the right angle, he noticed. Sloppy work, that was. He inhaled the caffeine and went back for more--there was still quite a lot of work to be done. Whatever Aizen’s plans were this time, he was definitely going to stop him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to BlueShadow for looking this over for me!
> 
> There's more to come, and relatively soon, but life is a bit crazy right now so it might take a few extra days :) I hope you enjoyed it!


	2. Equip your Weapons

“Oi, Onii-san,” Karin settled next to Ichigo, “Have you looked through your phone yet?”

Ichigo looked up from his half-eaten omurice. “My phone? Of course, why?”

“Look!” She thrust hers into his face. Ichigo blinked, wondering what he was looking at, before he saw that hers had a feminine silhouette.

“Congratulations,” he said, patting her head. “At least the nutcase who trapped us here isn’t a bigot.” And he meant it, sincerely. At least someone outside of the family was acknowledging her, even if it was someone who would see them all dead for their own amusement anyway.

“Yeah, well,” Karin frowned. “When are you meeting whoever this morning?”

“Not for another half hour,” Ichigo replied after checking the clock. “I wanted to have a little more of Yuzu’s cooking before I go.”

Karin hummed, and disappeared into the kitchen to keep Goat-face from badgering Yuzu too much as well as to get her own dish. Ichigo shut his eyes and enjoyed the play-by-play—he was probably going to miss this.

* * *

“Byakurai,” Rukia called, watching as the hadō cleaved through another abomination, though it petered out right after. It annoying--the spell was weakened somehow. Normally, her byakurai might have gone through several monsters of that size—but Rukia had learned to accommodate it. It was the third pack of monsters that she and the Naruki patrol group had come across since leaving the city area. They weren’t hollows, their spiritual pressure was wrong even though they had the masks, but since they were a threat to their lives and the souls of the humans…

She shouted out a warning as another pack charged them from beyond the treeline, even as she began the incantation for Sōkatsui. The patrol’s kido expert, Rin, started on Shakkahō as the others readied their blades. They weren’t very far from the city’s edge even if they were nowhere near a road, and if they were having this much trouble then the humans would stand no chance.

Rukia finished the incantation just a few seconds before the pack was in stabbing range, and the blast took out the two leaders. She quickly unsheathed Sode no Shirayuki to help as Rin’s Shakkahō took out another, leaving four for them to fight. No sooner had they dealt with them, than had a new pack appeared in the distance.

Rukia noticed a small note appear in front of her, which followed her as she turned to face the newest threat. “Level Up!” it read. She touched it, wondering just what that meant, when the  something flashed in her periphery. She looked around, only to see the green bar under her name was still flashing. She checked it, and it read that she now had 300 health and was level 2. Suddenly, Sode no Shirayuki was slightly lighter than she had been before, and she felt a new energy fill her as she crafted a Byakurai to pierce the leader. Whatever that note meant, it certainly didn’t seem to be bad.

* * *

Kisuke adjusted the light armor that had appeared in the Shoten. He’d exhausted his ideas of how to disrupt Aizen’s current actions from Karakura, and had decided to head over to the next town at least. He held some hope that seeing what Aizen had planned for the humans would reveal what his intentions were, and, possibly, what kind of technique he had used to create their current situation.

Would he be able to find Kagamino City if he traveled long enough to the east? What did it mean if he could? What did it mean if he couldn’t?

He’d been surprised to find himself unable to leave the city without wearing the armor. It had been like he’d run into a kidō barrier, except Tessai hadn’t been able to figure out how to break it. That disturbed Kisuke greatly—while there were plenty of kidō experts in the Fifth even while Shinji had been Captain, generally knowledge about the strongest barriers were kept to the Kidō Corps. Aizen shouldn’t have known that any such existed, let alone been able to modify one somehow to be stronger than any other. Kidō had its natural limits, after all.

Tessai and the kids had stayed behind in the first new city, when it became fully obvious that Aizen had managed a space dilation of some kind as well as a time one. Kisuke had no idea where the space had come from, but he was determined to find out. In the meanwhile, Tessai had opted to try to study the new barriers, to hopefully figure out exactly how they worked. The implications of being able to block specific items or anyone who didn’t have one  were terrifying, even without the sick creativity Aizen had displayed in the past.

While it had hurt Kisuke to leave Tessai behind as so many of their friends had left them, he became that much more determined to learn what he could of their new situation. A hundred years ago, they would have continued on together anyway, but that had been a lifetime ago. Perhaps it was better this way—the sooner they fixed it, the better.

He’s already hurt so many people with his choices and mistakes. And now, even more would be hurt by his inability to keep a step ahead of Aizen—he was going to have to fix this as quickly as possible and try to atone for every human that fell because he wasn’t good enough.

His best option seemed to be to play the ‘game’ as Aizen intended, and maybe this way he’d be able to become powerful enough to defeat him. Even Kyouraku-taicho had been limited by his own rules when playing ‘games’ in his shikai, so there was no reason why he shouldn’t be able to beat Aizen at his own.

He’d just killed another small mob of monsters, and was checking the experience bar to see how far he had to go to his next level. He was a little further than he’d like, but that just meant he needed to kill more of the apparently hollow-inspired monsters. The masks were familiar, but their reiatsu was off and they seemed uninterested in eating souls. Still, if they were Aizen’s newest experiments, they were not to be underestimated.

He located the next nearest monsters on the map, and checked his sword. He still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of charging a sword skill, since that newly-necessary hesitation would have gotten him killed in the Onmitsukido, but it seemed necessary enough for him to make sure he learned it, even with the retraining he’d have to go through when all of this was over. This version of his sword would work just as well as the true Benihime when he was done with it, he was sure. It was already thoroughly blooded, even if it hadn’t drank nearly as much as she had over the years.

It had already been a week since he’d left Tessai behind, and he was intent on finishing this as soon as possible. Whatever scheme Aizen had cooked up this time, Kisuke was going to make sure that it failed.

* * *

Aizen watched as the human souls ran around in his illusion. There, a pair of children ran into one of the hollow-inspired monsters he’d created, and died. He captured their souls with his hogyoku. As these people grew their reiatsu, the Jureichi would surely strengthen. But that process was inherently risky, especially with so many souls to keep track of. He’d planned for that--he only needed 100,000 souls to sacrifice to create the King’s Key, a mere quarter of the roughly 400,000 he’d caught in his technique initially. As long as enough survived and grew, he’d be able to feed his hogyoku the strengthened souls of the ones who had died, possibly to the point of its completion, without interfering with his main goal, the creation of the King’s Key.

The amusement that watching and manipulating the illusion brought him was another rather significant side bonus. Human ingenuity was always interesting—they tended to come up with many and varied ways to get around problems much more quickly than anyone in the Seireitei.

They had begun to become accustomed to the starting set of rules he’d given them. That was good—he hadn’t wanted to overwhelm them and see them all dead right away. He needed them to survive to feed the Jureichi after all. He only had one chance at this scheme, and it required delicate handling to keep it going at just the right pace.

But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t throw in any curveballs. Indeed, he should set the tone for what they had to reach towards. A tangible goal and enemy would do best, he thought. They would definitely get the picture if he used those, and it was a natural outgrowth of the tasks he had set them thus far to have to defeat it.

Aizen caught another soul who had died of lack of human medicine of some variety, idly put dealing with those who would not be able to grow their reiatsu past what they already had on his to do list, and started planning for the tests he would set for the others. It was a delicate balance to make it just the right strength, but Aizen was certain that he would be able to get it just right.

Maintaining balance was one of the Soul King’s jobs. It seemed only right that he should practice it during his path to ascension.

* * *

Having exhausted their sunlight for the day, Ichigo’s group dragged themselves back to the dirt path they had learned to call a road. Even though it didn’t look like much, the masked monsters didn’t usually want to fight on them, which made it a good place to retreat to to camp out for the night if they had been grinding too long to get to the next town. They’d figured out by the third day that night watches were better than trying to push on in the darkness. Even if the monsters tended not to attack people keeping still on the road, it was always better to be safe than dead.

Unfortunately, they were pretty sure that the Figure didn’t intend for them to use it that way. For one, there weren’t proper tents in the ‘game’ as far as they had been able to tell. They had all learned to sleep on the ground and use spare clothes from their inventory as pillows, blankets, or pads as necessary, and sleep next to each other for warmth. Tatsuki had been the one to suggest it—it was unorthodox for sure, but practical and even necessary as the weather turned. They had all quickly become inured to each others’ bodies after that.

The small towns they passed through were creepy enough anyway. The people who ran the shops and inns weren’t always exactly people. They didn’t have words for it, but they seemed to have a certain amount of pre-determined actions they could take. Orihime had been thrilled, wondering if they were some kind of alien species. Tatsuki had called them ‘true NPCs’. Ichigo had just wanted to make sure that none of them could kill them in their sleep, and Chad had agreed.

They’d been bedding down for the night when Chad first noticed the message. He’d gotten Orihime’s attention, since she was nearest, and she called for Tatsuki and Ichigo. While they approached, she checked her inbox and found the same message. Once they were gathered, they read it aloud.

 _Dear Player,_ the message began.

_Our squad name is Player One, and we are sending this to every player who has been leveling up within two days of Tosaka Town. We are sending this message because we have uncovered information that may lead to us all being able to leave here and get back to our lives. But we also believe that we will have to fight our way out._

_If you and/or your squad are interested, please join us in the Tosaka town center at midday two days from now. One of our members will be there to explain what we have found. Be ready to fight that day. We believe that together we will be able to create an exit! Please join us!_

_Sincerely,_

_Player One._

“So, we’re going to Tosaka Town then,” Tatsuki said, breaking into the silence that followed.

“It’s only a day away! We’ll be able to rest a bit before the fight.” Orihime chimed in. “And get steamed buns! I miss those.”

“It could be a hoax,” Ichigo replied. “But better to be safe than sorry. Getting out of here…” he trailed off, staring over at the sunset. “Well, we know why we’re doing this. If this is the end, I know I want to be there to see it. I’ll take first watch?”

“Wake me up when it’s my turn.” Chad put his hand on Ichigo’s arm.

The others all went to sleep as Ichigo kept an eye out for monsters and abominations. Somehow he got the picture that the Figure wouldn’t have set something as complicated as this up to only last a few weeks, but there was a small bud of hope in his chest that wouldn’t quite go away. Whatever that squad had found, it could only help their collective goal of going home someday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to BlueShadow for looking this over for me!
> 
> A bit of a montage of everyone learning the game and Aizen being Aizen. Fun times, yeah? Now that I'm settled back home it shouldn't take quite as long to get the next chapter out. So yeah. Lemme know what you think?


	3. Try a Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo's squad gains a new member right before they all work through their first boss battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so life right now is pretty darn crazy so I don't really want to say I'll update by such and such date because I can't really predict when I'll have time, but I'll do my best to keep bringing y'all content. Thanks! :D
> 
> In any case, thanks to BlueShadow again for betaing!

The town square was surprisingly empty when their group got there, ten minutes before the meet-up time. Ichigo had known that they had gone further out more quickly than most, but he’d have thought that there would have been more people responding to that kind of message. Maybe more people had gone in another direction. Or maybe they had decided that it was actually a hoax, as he’d thought possible.

The theatre building that _Player One_ had reserved for the reveal, or discussion, or whatever this was turning out to be, betrayed their expected turnout. They chose a higher row than most of the others. They were all ostensibly on the same side, but it never hurt to be cautious.

Tatsuki stretched out next to him, kicking her feet onto the level below. “I don’t recognize anyone,” she said.

“There,” Chad pointed. Ichigo looked over.

“Just some yakuza grunts, I doubt they’re looking for trouble here. Probably just going to pass it on,” Ichigo replied, scanning the crowd again.

“It’d be good to see Mizuiro again…oh, look, someone’s coming out,” Orihime nudged Tatsuki, and they all turned their attention to the stage area, where a tall man in blue armor approached a small podium. Ichigo gave him points for the theatrics, at least.

“Thank you for coming, everyone,” the man shouted. “My name is Keima, and my squad found something that could be a big step towards getting out of here!” There was a sudden swell of noise. Not a hoax, then. Ichigo and Tatsuki shared a look before returning their attention to the stranger in front.

“We found a hidden room built into a cave in a cliff about an hour’s walk west of here. We didn’t get too close of a look, but there seemed to be a lot of the masked monsters in there, bigger than anything we usually see. And there was one that was enormous compared to the rest. Taller than anything in Naruki’s skyline!” That provoked some muttering, but Keima just shouted louder over them.

“The Figure said that this was like a game, so it has to be a boss! If we can beat it, then maybe we can leave! Or, at least, we’d be closer to it!” Keima’s voice cracked, and he took a breath. “This is probably dangerous, but everyone here has chosen to fight. If we all form squads, we can take down the boss for sure!”

There weren’t any loud cheers—anyone who had gotten as far in as they had so quickly knew better than to count their eggs before they boiled, but there was a general air of excitement as squads turned to each other and began strategizing.

“Do you think it’s real?” Orihime asked, playing with her sleeve.

“I think we’ve got a real fight on our hands either way,” Tatsuki replied grinning. “Oi, Ichigo, what are you looking at?”

Ichigo was scrutinizing the other squads that were there. Most were of five or six people, though there were a few that looked like smaller groups coming together, if he had to guess. A few looked younger than he was comfortable with, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. He knew full well that he and his friends were younger than some others would like, but at least they were trained in fighting beforehand.

Looking around, Ichigo noticed that there were two players who seemed to not be part of or waiting for any group. “We should talk to them,” he said, pointing them out. “Boss or not, there’s safety in numbers in a fight like this.”

“They might not agree, but fair enough, we lose nothing by it.” Tatsuki eyed the two. The first wore a white half-cape with what looked like embroidery of the Christian cross all over. The other was completely concealed beneath an oversized dark cloak. “Orihime and I can talk to fancypants over there if you two’ll take tall, dark, and shapeless.” Chad nodded when Ichigo looked at him, so he agreed and they split up momentarily.

Tall, Dark and Shapeless acted as if they didn’t notice Ichigo and Chad’s approach, but Ichigo was sure the other was paying attention. “Hi,” Ichigo began awkwardly. “Are you waiting on your squad?”

They shook their head, revealing unkempt shoulder-length blond hair.

“Alright then,” Ichigo shifted. “Want to join up with my squad for this one then? It’s too dangerous to go solo against a boss. You don’t have to stay with us afterwards, of course.”

Both parties paused as grey eyes met brown. The staring match was only broken when the cloaked figure looked down to their phone and sent out a squad request. Ichigo looked at it for barely a moment before accepting. “Kirisaki, huh.” He studied the other figure for a moment more before shrugging and turning around. “Well, I’m Ichigo, and this is Chad. If you want to come with us, you should meet Tatsuki and Orihime as well.”

Orihime’s frown and the lack of a sixth name in their party when they returned said enough about how talking to the other solo player went. Tatsuki returned just a moment after they did, scowling. “So this is Kirisaki? Welcome to the squad.”

Kirisaki inclined their head at them, and Ichigo realized that he hadn’t heard them talk at all. That was fine, they could work with that as long as the other was willing to work with them.

“What about the other guy?” Ichigo asked.

“Prissy bastard wants to go at it alone. I told him that if he wants to die, he’d do better walking out into the woods without that bow of his than messing with something like this.” Tatsuki scowled even harder, before turning to their guest. “So, what’s your specialty, Kirisaki?”

Kirisaki gestured at their sword as if that were explanation enough. Swords certainly remained the most common weapon, having been what they all started with. Even Tatsuki still carried a blade, even though she much preferred her knuckle busters. They required her to be in even closer range than almost anyone, but that was fine by her. Chad worked similarly, but then he had the bulk to take a few more hits. Now that he was close, Kirisaki looked rather thin—they probably needed that extra bit of breathing room to avoid direct hits he might not have the padding to take, and a few good meals now that Ichigo was thinking of it.

Soon enough they were all heading out. Ichigo kept a weather eye out on their new member but the walk went as smoothly as it could have. They all unsheathed their weapons as they reached the area where the boss was. Keima tried giving them a pep talk, but Ichigo wasn’t paying him any attention. Those attempts thankfully stopped as soon as his team showed up, and everyone was back to talking final preparations for the battle ahead.

Ichigo gripped his oversized sword tightly as it was their turn to pass into the room. After all of the teams were inside the doors shut behind them ominously, and then—and then Ichigo felt like he was nine and back at the river, like he was eleven and he managed to beat the monster that showed up at the sports field with a spare bat, like he was twelve and he hadn’t gotten to that monster in time before it ate that man’s soul and he wondered if that was why his mother’s spirit hadn’t stuck around, like he was fourteen and nearly not fast enough to get away before he was eaten too...

And then the monster appeared. Keima was right, it was enormous, easily several times the size of any other monster he had seen. It looked to be as tall as a skyscraper, with a long white mask on its head and a black cloak that fluttered to the ground.

“Menos Grande,” he thought he heard Kirisaki say, but he wasn’t sure. He turned to ask what he meant, but right at that moment it screamed, a long high-pitched note that sent a place deep inside him gibbering for just a moment before his resolve hardened. They were going to beat the monster, whatever it actually was. They had no other option.

“Maybe we can kill it by slicing off its feet and work our way up,” Ichigo said, half-seriously. He felt more than he saw Kirisaki give him a _look_ in response, and he held in a small smile before refocusing.

The monster started charging a large red energy ball, and the various fighters scattered to get out of its path. Ichigo studied the attack—it was slow, but, from the scorch marks left behind, it was extremely powerful. The monster let out another scream before it began attacking again.

A version of that same attack that seemed to trade energy for more speed was aimed at the densest concentration of fighters in the room, but one of Keima’s squadmates intercepted it, blasting them backwards into a wall. Ichigo saw the person shatter into blue, grit his teeth, and returned to the fight in front of him. A moment later, Tatsuki caught his attention, and they began to execute their plan.

Their squad had been working on their tactics, but no single monster they had fought before had been quite this strong--Chad might not be able to tank for them against such powerful attacks. Even so, the monster seemed to be fairly slow. With their greater agility, Orihime and Tatsuki would be able to use their hand-to-hand, and Ichigo had his sword. While they had it distracted, Chad could land something stronger.

That left Kirisaki, since they were new…but they seemed fast as well. And pairing him off with Ichigo would work better than their original arrangement of Ichigo and Chad working together. The two of them had more compatible attacks and would be able to take advantage of the ‘switch’ function to stack them and leave the monster stunned for longer. That is, if it all worked out. They knew they needed to be flexible, because fights never kept to script.

“Okay, let’s—” Ichigo stopped suddenly as one of the yakuza team tried for a critical blow in what ought to have been a blind spot, got blasted away instead, and collided with the wall.

“Fuck,” the guy gasped as he spluttered and died. Ichigo lost a moment watching him shatter into crystal before Kirisaki pulled him out of the way of another attack.

“Let’s go, Shugosha,” Kirisaki rasped, bringing Ichigo back into the present. Ichigo nearly snapped back a response, before he caught sight of the other’s expression of focus and a touch of empathy. Instead, he took a breath, and readied himself to go back to the battle.

“Oi, Ichigo, are you ready?” Tatsuki asked a moment later.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Ichigo replied to Tatsuki, before turning to Kirisaki. “And, thanks.”

Before Kirisaki could respond, Ichigo was gone, running at the monster. He felt an acute sense of satisfaction as Kirisaki followed, slightly behind in preparation for the first switch. It was time.

Tatsuki reached the monster first, activating a high-jump skill and punching its mask, which took out a small chunk of its hit points. While it was still reeling, Orihime called out for a switch, and landed a strong kick against the same spot, taking out some more hp. Orihime was batted out of the way, her hp falling into the yellow range, and Tatsuki went after where she’d fallen even as Ichigo came up, slashing with his sword at the weak spot at the edge of the mask.

He didn’t have a great angle, but he got in some force anyway. Kirisaki switched with him right on time and landed a stronger hit that sent the monster to the ground. Chad reached the monster last, punching several times at the downed head.

Between them they had managed to take out most of the last quarter of the monster’s hp. It had been nearly as successful as they could have hoped for, even if Chad had to quickly get out of the way as the monster came back to its senses.

And then the monster had a pair of arrows sticking out of its eyes. Ichigo followed the trajectory back to the prissy guy with the white cape who hadn’t wanted to team up with them. He seemed to be adjusting his glasses even as the monster shattered into white crystal and disappeared. After taking a moment to process that they had survived, the entire room erupted into cheering.

Notifications appeared in front of all of them, stating how much experience and assorted loot they had picked up from the raid. Ichigo was pleased to see that he had gone up a level. As had at least Orihime as well, from her obvious excitement. Tatsuki was patting her shoulder, and Chad was standing with the pair of them. Seeing it warmed him—all of his friends were still safe, no matter what else had happened. He knew what he was fighting to protect, after all.

He figured that Player One was wrong about one thing at least—he doubted that the notifications would have come up if they were actually just about to be done with this whole mess. There would be no further need for experience points or levels then.

There was a commotion as Prissy Cape pulled what looked to be a high-level item out of nowhere, a glove of some kind, and inspected it before pulling it on. It glowed slightly before settling, visible even at Ichigo’s distance. He wondered why the guy hadn’t fought with it, or even how he got it—none of the loot was that good, and items like that would be expensive.

“It seems that there’s a bonus for being the one to actually kill the beast,” the guy announced carelessly, as if it truly made no difference to him that he’d gotten something important. Ichigo gritted his teeth—his group had done a very good job against the monster, and while leveling up was nothing to sneeze at, the least the guy could do was show some respect to the people who had carried him, instead of taunting them with a reward for getting the last few measly hp. But everyone was tired, and he needed to check on Orihime, so he pushed back his anger for the moment.

Amidst the angry mutters, Prissy Cape turned and sashayed out of the boss room, leaving behind a quieter and determined lot. There would be more boss battles, and someday they would get the bonus after having earned it.

* * *

 The trip back to Tosaka Town was quiet. Squads who had lost members were still in shock in most cases, and others respected that even if they were excited about defeating the beast. Even Keima looked somber, his squad down two of the members they had started with. The only exception was Prissy Cape, who was walking back a fair bit away from the rest of the group.

Ichigo glanced at Kirisaki out of the corner of his eye. Orihime was explaining something to him, making wide gestures, and even as he looked Kirisaki nodded back at her, obviously paying attention. It warmed him--after fighting together, he could say that he liked having Kirisaki around, and that he’d trust them with his back in the future if they had the option.

Tatsuki lagged back so that she would be walking next to him, and Ichigo let her fall in line with him. “What do you think about them?” She asked.

Ichigo hummed for a moment, eyeing the other, before he responded. “They’re strong. And they were watching my back like they were used to it. I don’t think that they were always fighting alone. Something could have happened to their squad.”

“I think so too,” Tatsuki agreed. “I think you should ask if he wants to stay, at least for a bit. He seems like a decent person, and he could probably use some friends. There’s too much death these days to be alone.”

Ichigo made a noise of agreement, thinking of the people he’d already seen die. A few minutes later, Tosaka came back into sight, to some scattered cheering. They were still some distance away, but it wouldn’t be long.

Ichigo and Tatsuki exchanged a look before changing pace to walk next to Orihime and Kirisaki. They weren’t being particularly subtle, but Kirisaki let them manage him. Ichigo wondered what he was thinking, before deciding it didn’t matter. Either the guy would agree, or they would go on their own paths.

“So, Kirisaki, what are your plans now?” Ichigo asked.

Kirisaki tilted their head back to look at the sky. “I’m going to find the next hollow,” they said.

“Hollow?”

“The monsters, they look like hollows, even if they don’t seem like them” Kirisaki gestured at their face. “It’s the masks.” They cheerfully pretended not to notice the rest of Ichigo’s squad listening in.

“That’s good to know,” Ichigo said. “So you’re fighting to get us all out of here?”

“Yes.”

“So are we,” Ichigo replied. “Want to keep traveling together? Numbers can be important against the stronger ones.”

Kirisaki took longer to respond. They all stopped, even as others walked past them. The city was close enough to hear up the road, but none of them were paying attention. Kirisaki met all of their eyes in turn, before turning back to Ichigo.

“If we’re traveling together, you may call me Urahara,” he exclaimed brightly.


	4. Special Event Spawns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kisuke settles in with the Karakura squad and they go on a mini-quest.

Kisuke had expected for it to have been awkward for him to join a ‘squad’. And to an extent it was—he was used to working alone, and the group he had chosen in the end were already tightly-knit.

But within the limits Aizen had set on this world, he wasn’t going to be able to go as far as fast without a group or an unacceptable risk of dying. As much as abiding with Aizen’s rules rankled him, it was more important to win in the end than to fight the much more minor indignities along the way. So he’d deal with it, and, if it came to it, he’d done much worse than let a few naïve humans die.

He also had to admit that if he was going to be working with human teenagers, at least he’d found a group that already had reiatsu. Specifically, the Quincy hybrid and his friends. He’d once thought that the boy would be useful in the fight against Aizen, with the unrivaled potential of his mixed reiatsu and heritage, and he still could be if Kisuke played his cards right. And then there were his friends, two fullbringers and one who was just very attuned to reishi for a living being, likely because of the way the boy leaked reiatsu everywhere.

It would have been kind of cute if he thought they had a clue of what they were getting into. Though, he thought grimly, he wasn’t entirely sure he did either.

He shifted to another perch as he thought. Night watches where they really shouldn’t need one were good for that, though he definitely approved of the precaution. Aizen had always been playing a long game. For him to have moved, something big had to have changed. It worried Kisuke that he didn’t know for sure what it was, but he had a few guesses. There were only a few things big enough to make Aizen show his hand like this to _Kisuke_.

He was going to show Aizen that he’d done the wrong thing in counting him out of the game. Every technique had its breakdown points, and Aizen wasn’t so much more powerful than him for him not to be able to take advantage of them.

A wind rustled through the grass and chilled Kisuke. As much as he was hoping to shut down this plot quickly, it was looking more and more like it’d be a long haul. While he was more than familiar with waiting for the proper moment to strike, it worried him to think that Aizen was the one setting the clock this time.

* * *

Traveling with teenagers whose hearts bled so deeply it was a wonder they could still beat also had its downsides. Kisuke found himself suspicious of the new ‘mission’ that had gotten sent to everyone, in sharp contrast to the excitement that the squad was expressing.

It was nearly the winter holidays, and the world had only recently begun to reflect that. It was cold enough that their breaths made white clouds every time they exhaled, and they’d been forced to take cover from hail more than once. Christmas was a perfect time of distraction. People could get used to anything, especially if they had a few creature comforts and some reassurance that if people were dying it wasn’t them.

“Maybe it’ll be some really powerful item we can use to get out of here!” Tatsuki suggested, cutting through his thoughts.

“Why would the Figure do that though?” Ichigo probed. “Whatever the prize is, it’s probably not that useful.”

“It’s still useful for testing our skills. Besides, everyone’s going to be out there, and it’s been ages since we saw anyone from home,” Tatsuki pointed out. “Even if we don’t get it, that’d still be lucky.” Orihime and Chad both made noises of agreement.

Kisuke tossed back the last of his alcohol. The only thing he wanted out of this madness was a better idea of what Aizen was doing.

* * *

As it turned out, _finding_ the nearest festival monster spawn point was the first part of the challenge. They’d been able to track it down to a forest, but everything in the forest felt like the creature. By its reiatsu, it was individualized enough to be followed like an Adjuchas but probably not more powerful than a Menos Grande. Definitely enough to be a threat to most of them alone, but they’d come a long way since the first boss. They could take it.

In the end, they’d decided to stick together. One person alone wouldn’t be able to kill the monster, Ichigo had said, so it was best not to get someone killed. While Kisuke privately laughed at the idea that he couldn’t deal with it, he had no better option. So they staked out a small clearing, hoping that they’d be somewhere near when the time came.

No such luck, by the shouting they heard in the distance barely fifteen minutes later. By mutual agreement, the group decided to see what was going on, and hopefully catch the monster before it died. When they reached the commotion, they were relieved to see that it was just a couple of guilds fighting over prime hunting ground. Powerful guilds, but not ones that would kill them if they saw them for the sake of it.

They were all poised to sneak away when the snow beyond the clearing kicked up, and suddenly a hollow’s roar split the skies.

The warring guilds looked up at it, but when one tried to run for it, someone from the other blocked them with the flat of their blade, and that fight continued. That left Kisuke and Ichigo’s squad to take down the monster, hopefully before anyone else could come and possibly steal the prize.

And so they fought. They were doing a good job of it too. They’d gotten two thirds of its health down and only two healing potions were needed between the five of them. Tatsuki used a high-jump to get to the top of a tree, and then another to plant a right hook in the thing’s face, before switching with Chad, who did the same thing. Kisuke stayed back for a moment, studying the beast. It was a rather durable thing, though it didn’t seem keen on regeneration. It took only a few moments longer to place it as a representation of one of Aizen’s test hollows, likely one of White’s predecessors by the shape of the hollow hole and--

“SWITCH!” Ichigo went in for a slice to its spine, but he’d found himself unable to defend against the claws, since the thing could _rotate its arms backwards, what fun._

Kisuke’s hat was blown off at the force of the blow, but that hardly mattered. He did get a good blow in against the thing’s torso before falling back as Chad and Tatsuki went in for punches. He settled in the trees and began an incantation for a mid-level kido, gathering power as quickly as he could.

“Get ‘em, girls!”

Kisuke turned as a group of three young women in bright yellow and white armor burst from the trees on the far side of the monster, sword skills primed and ready. Together, they managed to take out a good chunk of its health. Two more people wearing the same armor—uniform?—were herding back Orihime, which drew Ichigo away from the main fight, with the rest following as more showed up. Judging that they would be fine, Kisuke looked back at the almost-hollow, keeping his kido at the ready. He’d only have one shot at this.

With how much they had already weakened the monster, it took the interlopers at most ninety seconds to get it down to its last bar of health. As the group readied one last group attack, Kisuke let go of his. “Hadō 54: Haien.” He chanted.

He smiled slightly as the purple disc made the monster explode. There was no white hell butterfly, further proof that it wasn’t an actual hollow, but he was still satisfied to see that he’d been awarded the kill.

“Hey, who was that?” one of the young women yelled. “Daiki-kun, someone stole our kill!”

“Show yourself!” called a second one.

Better not let his audience wait, and more importantly, find Ichigo and their squadmates. He’d know if they were dead, but they’d gotten what they’d come for so it was better to not stick around longer than they had to. “Ah, no need to be hasty!” he called out to them cheerfully.

“And who the hell are you?” asked the first woman.

“Kirisaki, at your service. And you would be?” He gestured out at them mockingly.

“We are the Raiden Rising.” One of the men who’d first pulled Orihime away stepped forward. “The strongest guild in this world. Now, we can’t do anything about the experience points you stole, but if you give us the secret item we will let your friends go.”

Before Kisuke could respond, another group showed up, all wearing some form of blue and silver. “Hah, don’t say you were going to kill people for this, Daiki-tan,” called the group’s leader.

Daiki scowled. “You and your guild can leave this well enough alone, Aomi. These small fry stole from us, and we’re just doing what we have to—”

Aomi interrupted him with a loud laugh. “It just looks like you’re bitter from here, kid.”

“We didn’t take anything either!” Ichigo shouted across the trees. “You came in when we were already close to killing it ourselves! And who are you calling small fry, asshole?”

Already, the members of Raiden Rising were pulling away from their squad. While a few were giving Kisuke nasty looks, it seemed more and more like they were preparing for a fight with the newcomers. That suited him well enough as he made his way back to Ichigo, noticing how the others arranged themselves to be watching his back as he got closer. His lips quirked when Ichigo settled his hat back on his head, though he wiped his face of all expression as he turned back to survey the arrayed groups.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” someone yelled from behind. Kisuke looked—one of the groups they’d passed by earlier. That was—fantastic. He sighed. This was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

It was nearly dark when they finally reached a village, and all Kisuke could feel was relief. Thankfully, people had decided that their objective was to _survive_ and hadn’t ended up killing each other, and their squad had been able to sneak off without anyone following.

The village, at least, provided an opportunity to get a good night’s sleep without fear of monsters and regroup. There wasn’t much there—two inns, a dozen various shops, a few restaurants, and homes for the people who lived there. They were what had come to be known as ‘NPCs’, because they weren’t actually people as near as they could tell. They had a role to fill, things to sell, but they were limited in what they could do. And, most importantly, they hadn’t come from Karakura or Naruki City.

This far out, there were only a couple dozen actual people staying in the village. Nobody they recognized, which could only be a good thing at this point, though Kisuke was still going to insist on a night watch, even if he had to do it himself.

“So, the festival monster was a good boost in experience points,” Tatsuki began. “We’re moving up a bit, I think.”

“Good. Thanks for getting it done for us, Urahara-san.” Ichigo gave him a thumbs up.

“Those Raiden guys were jerks about it too,” Orihime grumbled.

“Have you checked what it was yet?” Chad asked.

“The special item?” Kisuke tilted his head.

“Oh, right! What was it?” Ichigo asked.

Kisuke hummed, checking his inventory. He hadn’t wanted to do this out in the open, but huddled in a room in an inn in the middle of nowhere would probably be secure enough to check. With the ease of experience, he thumbed through menus until he came across the unfamiliar item. He took it out of his inventory to take a look at it.

“Is that a mirror?” Tatsuki bent over it. “Why would it be a mirror?”

“Maybe it’s a magic mirror that can save us from aliens or teleport us or something!” Orihime gesticulated wildly, causing the group to laugh.

“There’s probably something special about it,” Kisuke agreed, shading his eyes with his hat. There must be. But he wasn’t sure yet what. After showing it to everyone, he sealed it back into his inventory, in one of the precious top slots that he could access without the full menu. He had a feeling that when it’d be most useful, he’d need it quickly.

* * *

They’d only gotten three rooms, two with two beds, and a small attic room that the inn’s owner had suggested instead of a cot. Sometimes they wanted their privacy, but, especially given the money they’d sunk into health potions incase the festival monster had been worse, it was better to save the money. They’d all get their own beds in any case.

After eating a late dinner, they’d decided to draw straws for the private room. Chad had won, which left Tatsuki and Orihime in one room and Kisuke and Ichigo in the other. It amused Kisuke that Ichigo actually believed that the setup was because of gender lines when he caught regularly how Tatsuki looked at Orihime. _Teenagers_ , he thought with growing fondness. It amused him even more that they thought they were being sneaky—of all their group, Ichigo was the lightest sleeper, and thus the one most likely to catch him if he were doing anything suspicious. It wouldn't be enough to stop  _Kisuke_ if he needed something, but he appreciated the strategy. 

That, of course, left him with Ichigo. Not that he was likely to do much sleeping, since no one else was going to do watches inside a village. There weren’t any monsters that could get past the village boundaries, after all. But they’d royally pissed off several guilds today, even if getting the mirror, whatever it was, was likely worth it.

They’d move on in the morning to some new locale, far enough away that hopefully they’d be able to get some reprieve from the people following. And, if they were lucky, access to new rumors. Kisuke was _dying_ to know if the other festival spawns had had other prizes.  

He ended up staying up most of the night, ears pricked for any noise, going between staring at Ichigo and staring out the window, just thinking. He did catch a few hours of sleep in the end, and that was just going to have to be enough for now.


End file.
